Summary

Food insecurity is one of the most pressing problems for rural Malagasy households in the South East. Malnutrition is worst in children under 5.  A harsh climate, recurrent droughts and lack of access to agricultural inputs (seeds and training & information) mean that while determination and enthusiasm are high, crop yields are often poor.  Lack of education and low levels of literacy mean there is a lack of understanding in rural communities of good practices with respect to family nutrition.  The isolation of these communities impedes the transport of foodstuffs and means that accessing state-provided health services and advice at the CSBs is impossible for many people.

The government has put in place a National Office for Nutrition (ONN) to respond to nutritional needs of vulnerable groups, with a particular focus on pregnant women and mothers of young children.  ONN is implementing the National Programme for Community Nutrition (PNNC) which aims to make isolated rural communities more self-sufficient in matters of nutritional health by bringing information and expertise to community level.  The European Union through its PRONUMAD fund is supporting projects against malnutrition amongst vulnerable groups.  We were selected to implement Project Votsotse with pregnant and nursing women in 7 of the worst affected Communes in the Anosy Region.  The project will implement the PNNC in 42 fokontanies (villages) and holds mass communication activities in 86 fokontanies, enabling isolated communities to access training and information which improves their ability to fight the problem of malnutrition.

Project Aims

• To contribute to the implementation of the MAP Engagement Commitment 5 (Health), challenge 7 'to significantly reduce malnutrition in children under 5 and food insecurity for households and vulnerable groups' and challenge 8 'to promote good practices for hygiene and sanitation' which will support this.

• To contribute to the implementation of the PNNC, which promotes practices that improve the nutritional status of pregnant women, nursing mothers and children under 5 and also the Ministry of Agriculture's policy of Community-based Nutrition, which aims to reduce food insecurity and malnutrition by improving the value of local food resources and introducing new agricultural techniques.

Purpose

To assist communities and especially pregnant women and mothers of children under 5 in making sustainable improvements to nutritional practices through community education and communication and by establishing locally managed structures for community nutrition.

Objectives

• A locally-managed structure is operational in 42 fokontanies which do not currently have a PNNC, educating and mobilising the community to improve their nutritional practices and improving knowledge about villages’ nutritional problems.

• Information on nutritional education is accessible to community members in 86 fokontanies and supporting measures in matters of hygiene and health are respected.

• A culinary site demonstrating ways to enhance the value of local food resources, and an agricultural demonstration site for the introduction of new farming techniques are implemented and locally managed in 42 fokontanies.

Principal activities

Structuring and training
In 42 fokontanies, a committee of local volunteers will be elected by the community and trained to mobilise and educate the community, especially pregnant and nursing mothers, on nutritional health and nutritional practices.  These people will work with our community agents in educating mothers through focus groups and home visits about the importance of good nutrition and in ways that they can take action to improve nutrition, encouraging mothers to monitor the growth of their babies at the PNNC site.

Mass mobilisation
Communication tools in media appropriate to these target communities will be produced in order to disseminate messages about nutritional health and hygiene.  This will include banners, posters and leaflets to support the PNNC activities and cinema projections in local dialect which will be screened in community meeting places.

To put in place demonstration areas
The project will actively promote quality complementary foods.  Culinary demonstrations held at the PNNC sites will show how to improve the value of local food resources.  PNNC officers will implement a demonstration site introducing new varieties of foodstuffs and new farming techniques to villages.  These will be a future source of seeds for community use.